Garret didn’t answer. I spared a glance at the men behind him and found they were watching me, not the soldier. Clearly, the dragon girl with the gun was the bigger threat, though they still kept their weapons trained on the back of his head.

My heart was pounding in my ears as I stopped a few feet from the kneeling soldier. I could feel Faith’s eyes on my back, the hawk-like stares of the men behind him, but my gaze was only for Garret. He was still watching me, though his eyes were distant now, almost glassy. Like he was staring right through me, at something I couldn’t detect. A lump caught in my throat, and my stomach twisted so hard I felt sick.

With trembling hands, I raised the gun, aiming it at his forehead. Garret closed his eyes, bracing himself. For a split second, with my finger curled around the trigger, everything held its breath.

“Look at me,” I whispered. He didn’t move, and I hardened my voice. “Look at me, Garret. I want to see your face when I do this. Open your eyes.”

For a heartbeat, the soldier remained motionless. For an agonizing moment, I thought he would refuse. But then he opened his eyes and his dark, tormented gaze met mine. I stared into those gray eyes and mouthed a single phrase, hoping he would understand.

Trust me.

He blinked…and I opened my fingers, dropping the weapon at my feet.

The second the gun left my hands, I Shifted, exploding into dragon form with a roar, my wings snapping behind me as I reared onto my hind legs. The Talon agents instantly raised their weapons, sighting down the much bigger threat, but I sucked in a breath and blasted them with fire, sending two of them reeling back. Still, I couldn’t catch all of them, and the chatter of assault rifle fire echoed through the room. Bullets whizzed by me, sparking off my horns and chest plates, and at least two punched through my wing membranes, making me shriek with pain.

A gun barked and two men fell. Garret had lunged forward, snatched the fallen pistol and fired with deadly accuracy into the line of Talon agents. The rest of them scattered, diving behind cover, as Garret leaped upright, still firing his weapon, and I tensed to attack.

Something slammed into me from the side, knocking me away from Garret and sending me tumbling across the floor. I caught myself, looking up just in time to see a lithe dragon, its scales a dark indigo, lunge at me with the speed of a cobra. I managed to scramble back, and Garret raised his gun to shoot it, but a hailstorm of bullets caused him to duck behind a stack of crates, hunkering down as the shots tore into the wood and peppered the wall behind him.